Friday, July 22, 2011

The DOOBIE BROTHERS: "Live At The Greek Theatre 1982"

If there's ever been a band with two completely different styles and eras. The Doobie Brothers started out in the late sixties, early seventies, as a rather ruugh and tough rock band (darn close to the southern style of The Allman Brothers at times) with Mr. Tommy Johnston (vocals/guitar) as their leading character and songwriter. Their 1973 album, "The Captain and Me", which also featured one of THE hits of the seventies, 'Long Train Runnin', and rockers such as "China Grove", both obviously included this live album, comes highly recomended by this particular reviewer.

Then came era:2, where 'Mr. Westcoast' aka Michael MacDonald replaced Johnston and The Doobies' changed things around completely and became THE notorious 'Yacht Rock' band of the late seventies (1976-1982). Smooth rock of highest quality and I would here recommend their 1978 Grammy Award Winning album of the year, "Minute By Minute". The titletrack, "What A Fool Believes" and "Depending On You", are all on this very record, "Live At The Greek Theatre".

Indeed, the band said a final goodbye to their fans with a concert at the Greek Theatre in 1982. You'll get to experience the huge difference in styles as all former and at the time present members of th eband are performing all the hits. There's a total of 19 tracks and sadly quite a lot of fillers inbetween the nuggets. Top notch musicians and a pretty decent and 'real' sounding live album, but it's probably mostly intended for the die-hard fans. Have a go at the two above mentioned albums first and see if you're into the band or not - I love them both and not quite as sure about the rest.